The fastest queen
by Pikapixie The Demigod
Summary: Leslie was incapable of running, moving. Was she? Jess never ran anymore, but he was over it now. Wasn't he? The queen was always faster than the king, right? They deserve to run together. ONESHOT


**So... Bridge to Terabithia! This randomly slapped me in the face while I was watching the movie. Because after Leslie died, wouldn't that make Jess the fastest in his class? But no, he wouldn't want that anymore, would he?**

**...**

Again in his English class.

Bubbles stream from her mouth and she smiles at Jess, and the world turns to water and fish around him. Seaweed drifted lazily past his eyes and he wished she would speak again, not from memory, for once. For real. Her seat is empty, and it makes his chest ache.

Then she's gone, and he's left drowning on his own in his dry classroom. Mrs. Meyers calls on him about something, and he answers like she would, talking about words and new worlds, but never Terabithia. Never Terebithia. He could've guessed his dad was the Dark Master, so now there was nothing to fight, no one to free. Maybelle changed too much, invaded what was left of her with flowers and castles.

Jess never went there.

Never, never. Not even when she beckoned or he found himself drawing the Squogres, the quickyfoot soldiers of the Dark Master and the ancient treehouse or the terrifying frayed strands of a stark woven rope broken in half burned into his memory.

He didn't run, either. That was something they shared. He drew her a lot, though. Painted her and drew her and erased her from his homework because all that got him was a trip to the counselor's office.

"That sounded familiar. Feel like scuba-ing in the creek? I hear there's still blood on the rocks..." Scott's voice, taunting and cruel, and Jess only controls himself because he can't afford another detention and his parents couldn't afford another shrink.

"That's rich, coming from you. Did you ever get your nose fixed?"

Rhetorical question, of course. Janice Avery seemed to have permanently tilted Scott's nose slightly to the left.

"Watch it, Aarons."

And Jess ignored him, because

again as the bell rang. She curved her way through the sudden throb of people, always just out of his reach, like a reflection in the water. He could never catch her, but then, she was always faster than him. Except in Terebithia, because there he was as fast as he wanted to be, faster than light, just as fast as her.

Recess was the same. Now that she was... now that she couldn't race, Jess was the fastest, but he didn't want to be. Kids challenged him, they all had the same dream as he did way before he dreamed that he could turn back the call and invite her, but he never accepted because she was the fastest, always. Jess didn't want to race. It hurt to think he was the fastest.

But today Janice Avery was absent.

"C'mon, loser. Race me. You and I both know I'm _fastest."_

_No,_ Jess thinks bitterly, "You are not."

"Prove it!"

_Did I say that out loud?_

"You're just scared to lose!" One kid called.

"Yeah, you can't be the fastest if you refuse to race!"

"Yeah!"

"That's right! I bet you got real slow after L-" Somebody covered this boy's mouth because nobody talked about her in front of Jess Aarons unless it was to sing her praises. The muffled _mphly _rang out and Jess clenched his fist and pretended like he didn't know which nameless boy had almost said that.

"Shut up," he said. "All of you."

"But-" The same boy said and he wheeled around with a fist raised and the boy flinched, but Jess froze like that because she shimmered and waved and smiled _again._

"Come on, Jess. Race you."

The crowd watched and the kid, older than him maybe, scuttled away as Jess stopped and watched her, pausing. This was more or less normal and nobody said anything about it, and the boy who irked the fastest boy in school sighed in relief and decided to keep his mouth shut next time.

"What?"

"Race you," she said, stepping up to the line. "Jess."

"Okay..." it was inaudible, maybe he thought it. Jess didn't know, or really care.

He stepped up to the line and Scott choked. His smirk dropped unexpectedly, and Jess realized while staring at her face to memorise it that Scott wasn't as confident as he seemed. Had he been counting on Jess not racing?

But now Scott had a reputation to uphold and he stepped up to the line.

A few other kids came forward but nobody wanted to race the two fastest kids probably ever. Or, three. Nobody saw the ethereal racer in bright, holey clothes with dirt smudged cheeks and matted hair that almost looked like it was still dripping red. Nobody but Jess.

This was weird, Jess thought as somebody yelled 'Go!' and they bolted. She had never appeared like this. Always gone so soon, not smiling at him with a sideways glance as she seemed to so effortlessly glide behind him, beside him, past him, just like the first day. But, Jess thought, I won't win.

But, Jess thought again, What if this was Terabithia?

And his feet lifted, Jess was flying, and he dropped the awful wish for just one second as Scott became a squogre and she became Leslie and the other kids surrounding them seemed to grow and turn dark and rough and even though the treehouse was missing we dashed away from the servants of the Dark Lord, hunting for Trolls, the sky darkened and dyed green from overbrush and shadowed with light.

Too soon the cheering started and Jess wished he had invited Leslie to the museum.

They had left the squogre far behind and Scott panted as he finally caught up, crossing the line, and Leslie raced so fast she blurred and she was gone. The trees shrieked with joy and grew limbs and faces and voices that were too loud and called him the fastest.

Was he? Jess hadn't seen who won. Him? Maybe Leslie, or maybe they tied.

The fastest, the fastest.

_So, looks like your the fastest kid in the class now, huh?_

_Huh?_

_Leslie's gone._

_No- she was there-_

"Jess! Jess! Did you win?" Maybelle cried as Jess stood there, not tired at all. Scott collapsed.

"Yeah," Jess said, looking around and realizing she wasn't there. "I think I did."

Scott whined and moaned but Jess didn't take him on in a rematch.

**...**

"I'm the fastest now," Jess said, experimenting with the words. They tasted funny in his mouth. His feet dangled off the edge of the treehouse. Maybelle wasn't here, so Terabithia looked like Leslie, with a wide, sparkling river and snowy mountains and trees that were all his. His crown sat next to him on the hard wood.

He had decided to come here and run, chasing the flash of blond everywhere. PT even helped, but he didn't seem to see her at all. The warriors were upset about something, as was the rest of Terabithia since their queen...

"She died," he asked a warrior lingering by the branches of a tree. It fluttered to its king. "Didn't she?" It looked kind of like a dragonfly. It didn't respond.

"I thought I knew before," he told it. "But I still see her everywhere. Is that bad?"

The warrior didn't know what to tell the king of Terabithia. The kingdom mourned after their queen's loss, but the kingdom didn't know what to do when their king left them. Now that he was back it seemed that he was in a daze and sad, and unfortunately the tenants of Terabithia had no counsel to offer the distraught boy.

"Maybe it is. It's probably not."

He was quiet.

"I don't know anymore."

The Warrior just buzzed by his face. His armor clattered. Jess sighed, and a tear slid unbidden and unfelt down his cheek.

"Anyway, I guess I'm the fastest now."


End file.
